EDITORIAL: Put Peralta name on the prow

While Rep. Duncan Hunter may have caused a flap ---- including
receipt of a raspberry from this page ---- for his opposition to
naming a U.S. Navy ship after farmworker rights activist and Navy
veteran Cesar Chavez, the congressman from El Cajon has done right
with another ship-naming issue.

Hunter has succeeded in getting language approved on a defense
authorization bill that "strongly encourages" Secretary of the Navy
Ray Mabus to name a ship after Marine Corps hero Sgt. Rafael
Peralta.

We concur.

Peralta, whose remains are interred at Fort Rosecrans National
Cemetery, sacrificed himself to save his comrades during
house-to-house fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 15, 2004, by
covering a live grenade. The scout team leader for Company A of the
Hawaiian-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, of the 1st
Marine Division, was leading his men on a mission to clear houses
when the gunfight broke out. The Marines who survived said Peralta,
who had been mortally wounded, reached out and tucked the grenade
under his body.

"Without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own
personal safety, Sergeant Peralta reached out and pulled the
grenade to his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast and shielding
fellow Marines only feet away," said then-U.S. Navy Secretary
Donald Winter in Peralta's citation for the Navy Cross.

Unfortunately, a reviewing panel did not support awarding of the
Medal of Honor to the fallen Peralta, despite the intense lobbying
by the Marine Corps and the California congressional
delegation.

So it is fitting now that the Navy take this further step of
honoring Peralta's sacrifice by adding his name to the registry of
naval ship names.

As is Navy tradition, we urge Secretary Mabus to commit to
putting Peralta's name on the next Arleigh Burke-class guided
missile destroyer to come out of the Ingalls shipworks.